The first thing I do in a fresh Laravel app

When I start a new Laravel app, the first thing I usually do is to add some opinionated configurations in the boot method of AppServiceProvider.php. I put each configuration into it’s own method, to keep it clean. The methods can then be called inside boot.

1. Enable strict mode for Models

protected function configureModels(): void
{
    Model::shouldBeStrict();
}

This does three things:

Prevent lazy loading
Prevent silently discarding attributes
Prevent accessing missing attributes

2. Configure Commands

protected function configureCommands(): void
{
    DB::prohibitDestructiveCommands(
        $this->app->isProduction()
    );
}

This prohibits destructive DB commands like db:wipe, migrate:fresh, migrate:refresh, migrate:reset etc. when the app is in production.

3. Configure Dates

use Carbon\CarbonImmutable;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Date;

// ...

protected function configureDates(): void
{
    Date::use(CarbonImmutable::class);
}

Carbon instances are mutable objects by default, which can be a footgun. The above configuration enables immutable dates by default.

Be aware that you have to use the Date facade instead of the Carbon class to make use of this.

The boot method then calls each method:

use Carbon\CarbonImmutable;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Date;

// ...

public function boot(): void
{
    // ...
    $this->configureModels();
    $this->configureCommands();
    $this->configureDates();
}